Artists: Tom Schüler (trumpet and flugelhorn); Jens Joneleit (drums, bass, electric piano, grand piano). "The word 'arbitrary' means operating freely, on one's own authority or will -- and hence what jazz has to be above all. The improvisation here is based not on tiny musical material such as phrases or themes but on musical auras. On Arbitrary the musicians 'take power' with clear and to-the-point auras: above all, the aura of the electric period of Miles Davis in the 1970s and the 'wall of sound' of Albert Ayler's rhythm section (Sunny Murray and Gary Peacock). Such an arbitrary combination of two such crucial and fundamentally different aesthetics of jazz has its dangers, but nevertheless it opens up new perspectives thanks precisely to the risks taken."

Artists: Roscoe Mitchell (tenor saxophone, flute, piccolo, soprano saxophone, bass saxophone, sopranino saxophone, alto saxophone); Jens Joneliet (drums, bass and piano). "Illuviation is an attempt to start out and develop precisely from where it gets 'dangerous' for many jazz performers and fans, transgressing a certain tolerance level. Illuviation is also an attempt to cause seemingly irreconcilable stylistic directions and sound worlds to collide, but not to blur them mercilessly as in crossover or to allow one 'world' to force the other 'world' off the road, but rather to let each hear the other at the same time and to enter into a dialog previously considered impossible. As a guest on compositions by and with Jens Joneleit, free jazz legend and multi-instrumental virtuoso Roscoe Mitchell is heard here, opening up for the first time his full talent for a very different musical spectrum, thus confirming Duke Ellington's motto: 'If it sounds good, it is good.'"

"Jens Joneleit (drums, bass and piano). Recorded using multitracking with each individual track recorded live without editing. Session dates: January 31, 2004 (drums), February 2, 2004 (bass & piano). All recordings engineered by Buzz Kemper."

Jens Joneleit (drums). Recorded live on July 2, 2004 at Audio for the Arts Studio, Madison, WI. "Jens Joneleit is a gifted contemporary composer, born in Offenbach, Germany, in 1968. In his formative years as a composer, he was largely influenced by the musical environment provided by his parents who both play the piano. Realizing their son's talent in music early on, Jens Joneleit was sent to a music school to learn basic theory skills when he was seven years old. In 1975, Jens started to take percussion lessons and successively took part in performing with the marching band of his hometown, Nieder-Roden. From 1984-1986, Jens Joneleit taught himself the piano, during which time he became more interested in composing music, writing compositions for solo piano and percussion."